LAFC vs LA Galaxy – September 14, 2024
The third episode of El Trafico in 2024 broken heartedly went in favor of the hometown rivals as the LAFC vs LA Galaxy match at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday night ended in a 4-2 loss for the Black and Gold. LAFC’s three-game winning streak against the Galaxy finally came to a halt as they are now 14-7-6 for the season with 48 points, sitting in second place of the Western Conference.
Only four minutes into the game, LAFC’s Denis Bouanga shuffled his way to the left corner of the goal area and found teammate Mateusz Bogusz on a short cross that luckily bounced off the foot of Galaxy’s Maya Yoshida and right into Bogusz’s noggin for the easy header. Shortly after, LAFC doubled their lead in the 15th minute when Bouanga commuted the exact same route as their first scoring play, but this time around, he took a left-footed strike that was touchy enough to get past Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy.
It seemed as if LAFC had all the momentum in the world with an early 2-0 lead throughout the first half, but the break was when fate seemed to have taken a turn. In the 53rd minute, Galaxy’s Dejan Joveljic made an outstanding play juking out three Black and Gold jerseys and drilled one past LAFC’s Hugo Lloris. Less than two minutes later, Galaxy’s Edwin Cerrillo took a tremendous shot right on top of the penalty arc which floated out of Lloris’ reach and into the back of the net.
The Galaxy must have smelled blood, as they took the lead in the 67’ even while being outnumbered in the penalty area. Aligned right toward the goal, Marco Reus crossed to Ricard Puig who found Joveljic for the sneaky tap in to put his team up 3-2. To make things worse, LAFC was reduced to 10 men when Lewis O’Brien received a red card for fouling Galaxy’s Miki Yamane.
The hometown rivals didn’t want to end the LAFC vs LA Galaxy highlights just yet, as the final nail in the coffin occurred when Puig went all in from the penalty arc, bending it like Bompton, and breaking the hearts of the Black and Gold in the 86th.
LAFC finally lost their seven-game unbeaten road streak which has been live since May 4. On the bright side, LAFC did put some numbers on the board as they haven’t scored more than one goal a game in their previous four games.
The Black and Gold will take the short trip back home to matchup against Austin FC on Wednesday, September 18.
